Spiritual Progress
June 16, 2023
We know we are making spiritual progress when we reach the point that we see through the ego’s tricks.
We watch TV commercials featuring sleek models in beautiful clothes, perfect bodies and knock-em-dead smiles. There is possibly a castle in the background and the wind blows through her long thick hair. We might think, “What a beautiful person, on top of the world. She has it all.“ Then the male model joins her with an open shirt, shiny abs and wind-swept hair. He invites the lady into his Maserati, and off they speed on the winding roads of Monte Carlo. And we say to ourselves, “Oh my gosh, the perfect life!”
The ego is terrific at creating illusions and being taken in by illusions.
But when we are conscious, we see through false perfection. Instead, we know that the images are the ego’s attempt to portray absolute perfection. Attracted to that, it is hoped we will want the product being advertised. The models may have beautiful clothes and stellar bodies, but we know they are regular folks paid to be in a setting and income bracket that likely aren’t theirs. They would likely not be models if they were indeed in that upper echelon. They are people like you and me who have families back in Oshkosh, Shreveport or Boise. They have wants and fears just as you and I do.
Astonishingly however, there ARE people who have perfect bodies and riches and ride Maseratis on the roads of the most exotic places in the world. But regardless of their beauty and wealth, they too have imperfect lives. They have jealousy and loss … dashed hopes, fears and unsatisfied desires. These glamorous people are souls with struggles and challenges. They have quests and disappointments and they have a spiritual destiny. Their problems are as serious as those with no money and no model-quality beauty. So why would we want their lives that are essentially filled with the same problems as ours?
There is no perfection in the ego-made world. However, the ego tries hard to imitate perfection, and frequently, it hoodwinks us into believing it’s true and that we too can have it! This brings on much needless suffering.
The ego tries to restore the sense of Holy Perfection we experienced as a soul child but lost when we forgot our true nature. The soul child’s idea of perfection is not outward beauty or riches, though these are desirable. Absolute perfection is the wholeness of creation, even with its inherent losses and flaws.
In consciousness, anyone who our ego perceives as golden, perfect, flawless and desirable, is actually a human being with imperfections and a soul who has a sacred contract with God. Only when we see and accept human imperfections as well as its beauty does our soul experience perfection as it did in the soul child.
When the ego’s illusions no longer take us in, we are growing in consciousness and progressing spiritually. And we accept our own and others’ imperfections as part of wholeness.
Inquiry: What image of perfection can you see through to the reality underneath?
Dear God,
Grant that I accept my and others’ imperfections and progress beyond my ego’s idea of perfection. Amen.
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